====== The Star Factory - [in]visible belfast ======
From Ana
The story of [in]visible belfast has begun.
The game launched at noon, 12 May 2011, with a message: 'Embedded in every layer of the journey, you’ll find the past. All futures, in their infinite plurabilities, wait to be written.' Anyone registered on the http://www.invisiblebelfast.com website will have received this message, along with a clue. If you haven't registered, you still can.
My name is Ana Kuipers, and I might be chosen as the protagonist, evident in the fact that @visiblebelfast has created a list on Twitter called The Protagonist that is following me and one other. The person, or people, who call themselves [in]visible belfast, have been watching me and filming me for weeks now. You can access several films that they created of me without my knowledge.
What we're meant to do, what mystery we're meant to solve, we haven't yet been told, but the secrets of Belfast will apparently be revealed.
Some talented people have already joined in to help solve the mystery. We are communicating through Facebook and Twitter; friend me on Facebook to find out the latest, and search for me on Twitter (@anadanikak).
You also might learn a little more about the mystery through my blog and my YouTube channel, where I've been posting things that I've found, or things that have been sent or given to me. My blog is at http://anadanika49.blogspot.com . My YouTube channel is at http://www.youtube.com/user/AnaDanika49 .
Several advanced conspirators have already solved their way through the first series of clues, and have banked some important information at http://forums.unfiction.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=32153&sid=0183320530ac4bdcee6b04ac6a37399f .
Please help me solve the mystery. Update this wiki with any information you think is useful for new conspirators and anyone who needs a quick summary of recent events. And enjoy taking on [in]visible belfast. :)
Best, Ana
Unanswered questions
@draghkar
Since we are coming close to an ending, and the conclusion is set at the 19th, this section should have the questions that need to be answered by the PM or in game…
- Who or what is [in]visible belfast?
- Why does [in]visible belfast know so much about Ana?
- Who has been impersonating Meri Cain?
- What role does Alan Hook play in this all?
- What is the significance of the word “veritas” to this quest?
- Who is the other scientist at queens, that made ana's dad loose his research grant?
- Why is Ciaran Carson so interested in Ana?
- What is the role of Jack Sellars (or cellars)?
- Why use ogham (celtic script) on an apparently greek coin/token?
- What modifications on the star factory book that Ana received have we not seen yet? (like the page at 0:23 in the trailer)
- Why was the altered image of rjt1978 never posted on the photography page?
Video Summarys
- Ana Kuipers - http://youtu.be/IgXq2nlUm0c
- William Priestly - http://youtu.be/wCPzOhlY4ZY
- Draghkar - http://youtu.be/aP3RF-j9qbw
- Richard Thompson - http://youtu.be/SGQN8K5qSGE
Emails
Here is a list of the emails sent by Invisible Belfast. Feel free to change this list if I have them in the wrong order or if I'm missing any:
Jacks Video
In the latest email Jack Sellars (or Cellars) speaks against a crackly background, slightly distorted. The email has a picture that links to it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GDunB9EDSGE. It's pretty hard to make out, i put it through some filters and transcribed it below… (i think it's pretty accurate)
Ana is gone. You’re not going to see her again until this is all over … if she makes it through. Ana is with us now, going through the necessary rites. If she is meant to be the protagonist, we’ll know it by Sunday evening. If not … well. Let’s hope she’s the right one after all.
You may have guessed by now that I’m Jack Sellars. You already know I’m a member of Ciliaris Arts Group. I’m sorry I had to lie to you about my involvement with [in]visible belfast, but such things are sometimes called for. You’ll eventually find out everything you need to know about us.
I will go ahead and confirm what you already know: Merope Cain never existed. There was a Mary Cain from Ana’s childhood, she is dead. We found out about Ana’s past, and invented a girl named Merope, or Meri, to befriend Ana from afar, in the guise of her childhood friend. To follow her movements through various interfaces, to keep tabs on her life, to remember details that we would use later. And then, we used Meri to subtly encourage Ana to come back to Belfast.
Many of you have contacted me to find out whether Meri was real or imagined, and the truth is, she is both. Meri Cain is half our creation, half Ana’s reality; Meri Cain was our tool for debstabilizing Ana’s ideas about reality, to force her to consider her story as overlapping and intertwining with many others. Who of us is one hundred per cent real, anyway? Meri Cain served her purpose.
I know what you’re thinking, and the answer is no. I am not invisible belfast. I am not at the centre of things. Your search isn’t over yet.
Good luck.
Links
Misc
The main game site (and pages in order of appearance)
The Main site accessible folders
Unfiction Forum post on invisible belfast
A play that you can register for online
A site linked from the water clock site
Ana
Meri
Invisible Belfast
Blogs
YouTube
Invisible Belfast
Ana
Alan Hook
Photos
For more photos from the book, see Ana's blog.
Maps
I've put together a Google Map of some locations that may be pertinent, or at least have shown up somewhere along the line. @EKSwitaj
Here's a few things I came up with, assuming that the diagram with 7 points represents 7 locations in Belfast - @rjt1978
This was my first effort, trying to fit the 7 pointed diagram into the map of Belfast (which by the way seems to be an old 1922 map) that Ana was given…
This seemed to give possible locations as 1. City Hall, 2. Clifton house (www.cliftonbelfast.org.uk) the old Belfast Poor house, 3. St. George's market, 4. St. Anne's Cathedral, 5. Custom house, 6. St. Malachy's church and 7. the Albert Clock.
We have since discovered from the pictures that Ana found in the book that the City Hall and the Albert Clock are indeed significant. It may be significant that the City Hall picture was on page 13 (1+3=4….possibly location 4) and the Albert clock as on page 25 (2+5=7…possibly location 7).
We also learned from the quotes relating to labyrinths and the minotaur that this is a description that Ciaran Carson used to describe Smithfiled market in one of his books…so Smithfield market is significant.
Finally we learned that the Crescent Arts Centre and Writer's square near St. Anne's Cathedral and the Entries had [in]visiblebelfast written on the ground suggesting that these locations were also significant.
Factoring all of the above into my thinking I then came up with this as a possibility…
In this version the locations are as follows: 1. the old Belfast Town Hall (now the Coroner's court opposite Victoria Square), 2. the Crescent Arts Centre, 3. Writer's Square, 4. City Hall, 5. Smithfield market, 6. the Albert Clock…and location 7 I am not sure but it seems to be pretty close to the area near lower Garfield street where the Garfield bar was, which featured in the [in]visible Belfast trailer.
So here's what happens when you combine the 1922 map with the star chart from the Ciliaris site -@EKSwitaj
If anyone wants the .psd file to play with the layers, hit me up via Twitter or Gmail (same username either way).
Would you be able to overlay the clock from the timeisfleeting page?
The Water Clock
http://www.thewaterclock.co.uk/
This play at Belfast's Queen's Film Theatre is billed as an [in]visible belfast production on the poster on their site. It seems you can register to attend both in person and online via the website. The play seems to have characters with names which correspond to stars in the Pleiades which is the subject of Ana's academic work. There is also a link to http://www.ciliarisarts.co.uk/ which has some interesting star chart images.
One other character is introduced here: Jack Cellars or Jack Sellars (JackCellars@gmail.com)
The Seven Sisters
@rjt1978
The programme for the waterclock production only has five of the seven sisters. It would seem Ty is deceased… How and when we are yet to find out!
The first page on the waterclock site lists all the sisters names and gives a description. The only other one not in the programme is Celaeno (sound familiar? Ana?)…she is described as the missing star…or darkness/blackness. Sounds ominous.
Finally we know from Meri's blog that she is pregnant. The description of the character Merope on the waterclock programme says she was 'born to fill a hole'…could that be the death of Ty? But also it says that she 'contains the key'…she is pregnant!!
Not sure what all this means but it seems important.
And if you look at the original mythology of the Plaeides, Meriope is described as the Mortal, because she lay with a human, Sisyphus. And the blog is called Ramblings of a mere mortal
the Play
prologue
The narrator leads us into the story and starts the Water Clock. The story will end when the water completes its journey; drip drip drip through the Water Clock.
The next scene is a sister ranting and writing a letter of sorts (Maia, the oldest sister, the responsible sister?) [she rants about how the birth of Ty changed everything and is writing to her sisters to organise a reunion however she seems stressed about the situation]
After this, the groups are split the videofeed followed the red group, which happened to have Ana in it… (coincidence??)
the red group
the next scene was one of 2 people in bed, man getting out, dressing, woman getting out putting on a robe, talking about their relationship or something - she is cheating??
Between this room and the next the video guy caught up to Ana and asked her if she was Ana, she acknowledged, and asked if he was asked to film as well.. that was the extend of the conversation…
The next room the group went to was a room lit with candles and stuff and a sister sitting between them and several items. the monologue was too low in volume soi i didnt really hear that well what was said..
After tht we were lead outside, and a drunken sister on the stairs came along.. and the videofeed was cut out from that point in time…
the white group
the black group
The black group visits Alcylone first, a tormented soul due to the actions of her father. Sadly trapped by her past and her drug use in the present.
We then come across Electra; an angry sister with a drink problem. Her anger is directed at her father.
Next up is Asterope. One of the younger sisters who never really knew her father; her life has been ruined by a lack of belonging turning to selling her body in an attempt to feel a connection with someone, anyone. She naively hopes to be reunited with her father.
Last is Merope. Pregnant and sailing across the Irish Sea suffering from sea sickness and indeed morning sickness. Her fiance is not with her (we later find out that he fixes boats for a living). Merope is the youngest sister yet also the most detached from her family and perhaps as such is the most normal and stable.
Intermission. (all the groups saw the same thing just in a different order)
final scene
Act 2 sees us all come together as indeed the five sisters have come together. They are sitting in the childhood home, now Maia's home together with the Water Clock in the background; their father's prized antique. Maia organised the meeting, Alcylone wants to leave, Electra is angry and believes their father wont show up, Asterope is hopeful in an almost childlike way while Merope doesn't understand the fuss given her young age and lack of recollection regarding her father and their dead and youngest sister Ty. It is revealed that their father was a drunk and a dead beat. It is then revealed that he had gotten himself into some bother (with the paramilitaries) and he attempted to escape taking Ty with him as a human shield. He was drunk and crashed his car with Ty on his lap with no seat belt; she died, he survived yet quickly left his family and fled never to be seen nor heard again. The narrator then intervenes and declares that Maia has indeed seen her father and forces a confession from her; her father came to her explaining his desire for a reunion however she was unimpressed and murdered him with his own Water Clock. The narrator demands justice and turns to the audience to declare judgement; Guilty or innocent. The audience declare Maia innocent yet the narrator insists that judgment must occur. The sisters turn on him, grab him and Asterope kills him the same way her father was killed with the Water Clock being pierced through his throat and punishment is administered and judgement appeased. The stage goes black, and the Water Clock stops.
analysis
As a play it was a very enjoyable experience and analysis of how a family is torn apart by a drunken father and the death of a sibling. It's importance within (in)visible belfast remains obscured. The seventh sister was absent, Ana remained a part of the audience and was in fact the last person to enter the QFT, even after the narrator. Once Ana sat down the play started. I noticed that Merope/Meri had a book with her in the last scene: Invisible Cities.
During the final scene, we learned that the Faulkner quote which appeared on the timeisfleeting page was said by the father to his family when giving the water clock to them. During the prologue, the narrator told us we had to learn to walk between the lines to see the true story, which is something else we've heard from [In]visible Belfast. When the sisters kill him, they mention that he had manipulated them for his own ends. In some respects, this is the story of the play–not or not only what the sisters went through but the narrator's efforts to force the audience to judge.
Isn't this kind of manipulation a bit like what [In]visible Belfast does?
Other information
Here are some other random things that have been discovered, the significance or relevance of which (if any) are yet to be discovered…
1. Ana is an Astronomy student writing a PhD about the Messier 45 star formation…this is also called Pleiades or the Seven Sisters.
2. One of Ana's friends is called Maia, this is also the name of one of the stars in the Seven sisters cluster, Maia (Ana's friend) also has a number of other sisters…not sure how many though.
3. The number seven seems to recur a lot….as in the 7 sisters, the 7 locations, the 7 pointed cut-out on the map, 7 entries in Belfast.
4. The book Ana discovered in the Linen Hall library was the Star Factory by Ciaran Carson, on the spine of the book was written the number 524…it had been discovered that this is a now unused number in the Dewey Decimal classification of library books but previously was used to denote Astronomical maps.
5. There is a section on page 30 of the book which has been removed….the text from this missing section can be found in google books and says…“To someone looking through piles of old letters, a stamp that has long been out of circulation on a torn envelope often says more than a reading of dozens of pages…”
This seems to be a quote from Walter Benjamin's book 'One-way street' which says almost exactly the same thing…“To anyone looking through piles of old letters, often a long-out-of-date stamp on a crumpled envelope will say more than dozens of perused pages.”
Anyone any ideas as to the significance of this??
Benjamin is probably best known for his incomplete Arcades Project. Maybe this refers in part to one of the arcades in the city centre?
6. The historical 'heart' of Belfast is probably in and around the Entries, as this is the oldest part of the city…in the note written to Ana in the back of the book it said “in the heart of the city you will find a way out”…this seems to re-emphasise the importance of this area to the evolving narrative.
7. As well as the number 524 on the spine of the book, the letters OPIHN were also written, this is surely signficant, but I have no idea what it could mean!
OPIHN translated into Greek letters would be Omicron Pi Iota Eta Nu…could these be the names of stars? If you look at the star chart on the Ciliaris website www.ciliarisarts.co.uk it is all in Greek! [Actually, some of the names on the star chart use Cyrillic letters; the one closest to the centre of the circle, for instance, is Russian for “Bear”] If you sound out these letters, it sounds remarkably like Orion who, in myth, pursued the Pleiades and, as a constellation, is often used to find other constellations in the night sky.
take the numbers on the book 524 and translate these to letters, you will get EX combine these with OPIHN and anagram them, and you will end up with PHOENIX
I think this could be right…look at this website www.omniglot.com/writing/greek.htm … it would seem to suggest that if we translate OPIHN into the Greek equivalent it would be pronounced O-r-i-e-n…. not spelt correct of course but pronounced exactly the same as Orion!
8. As a little aside, Ana posted a trailer to the movie/documentary 'Catfish' on her facebook page not so long ago…if you have seen Catfish then I think you will understand why I think that it is interesting that Ana posted that!
9. The word ciliaris seems to relate to the ciliaris or ciliary muscle in the eye which is used to adjust the lens of the eye to help your eye to focus on objects near and far. Also, Luidia ciliaris is the name of a seven-armed starfish.
10. The meta description of timeisfleeting.html is “The eldest riddle in the universe.” Googling for the oldest riddle turns up this:
As I was going to St. Ives, I met a man with seven wives. Every wife had seven sacks, And every sack had seven cats. Every cat had seven kits. Kittens, cats, sacks, and wives, How many were going to St. Ives?
Given that the page is all about time, though, I also thought of the riddle of the Sphinx: “Which creature in the morning goes on four legs, at mid-day on two, and in the evening upon three, and the more legs it has, the weaker it be?”
The origins of Belfast
I (@rjt1978) found this very interesting picture of the original town of Belfast from 1685…
Does the shape look familiar?
You can see the River Farset running though the centre of the town. This river is now contained in a tunnel beneath High Street and runs under the Albert Clock into Belfast lough. You can also see the old Belfast Castle which as far as I can gather was somewhere near the existing streets of Castle Lane and Castle Street.
Dante's Inferno
“The Inferno” is listed in the metadata of the front page of the Invisible Belfast website.
On 18 May, @visiblebelfast tweeted “Conspiritors, [look how thou enterest, and in whom thou trustest; Let not the portal's amplitude deceive thee].” This from Canto V of the Inferno, which is about the second circle of Hell where carnal lovers are punished, and Minos judges the dead. Note that these lines are spoken by Minos who is then rebuked by Virgil (Dante's guide).
The circles of Hell:
Sources of Time is Fleeting
The text on the timeisfleeting page has two sources:
The first paragraph is adapted from Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism.
The second paragraph is adapted from Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury. Quentin Compson's father gives him an heirloom watch, stating “I give it to you not that you may remember time, but that you might forget it now and then for a moment and not spend all your breath trying to conquer it. Because no battle is ever won . . . They are not even fought. The field only reveals to man his own folly and despair, and victory is an illusion of philosophers and fools.” Quentin eventually smashes the watch and commits suicide.
Timeisfleeting Clock has now been replaced with a jigsaw, giving us page 184/185, of The Star Factory, by Ciaran Carson. Describing three images of Belfast city centre. There is also a Seamus Heaney poem based on the same image he's describing on page 185,
HIGH STREET, BELFAST, 1786
Here are men in tricorn hats And lownecked belles, all full of chat, Blocking the vista to the docks;
The loosed-out carts And panniered horse, the dogs At random.
It's twenty to four By the public clock. A cloaked rider Clops off into an entry
Coming perhaps from the Linen Hall Or Cornmarket Where (this civic print unfrozen)
In twelve years time They hanged young MacCracken - And this man with a crutch
And this tricorned fop Forever arrested, pre-revolution. Pen and ink, water tint
Fence and fetch us in Under bracketed tavern signs, The edged gloom of arcades.
It's twenty to four On one of the last afternoons Of reasonable light.
Smell the tidal Lagan: Take a last turn with citizens In the tang of possibility.
Seamus Heaney
This giving anybody anything?
Finnegans Wake
The second email sent by Invisible Belfast includes the term “plurabilities” linked to a passage of Finnegans Wake in which Anna Livia Plurabelle (ALP) is referred to as the “Bringer of Plurabilities.” ALP is most famously linked with the Liffey in Dublin, but she is also in a sense all rivers.
The timeisfleeting.html page originally included a meta description “the eldest riddle in the universe.” Meri Cain has confirmed that this is ”When is a man not a man?.” The “correct” answer given by Shem is “when he is a . . . Sham.” A common interpretation of the riddle holds that the answer is noman/gnomon, this being a concept/pun that has been present in Joyce's work since Dubliners. Unfortunately, as far as I can tell, none of these answers work as the next password. Gnomon, however, seems like it might well be relevant. And the absence of the meta description tag in the new version of the page makes me wonder if the answer to the riddle really is supposed to be the next password.
“Although the phoenix is an obvious symbol for rebirth, Joyce specifically relates it to alchemical imagery on several occasions. The mythical bird has a tripartite spirit in Finnegans Wake (“the phoenix, his pyre, is still flaming away with true prattight spirit” 265.08-10) because the alchemists thought of the Stone which it symbolized as a combination of mercury, sulphur, and salt. HCE is referred to as a phoenix (55.28) in a passage about rising and falling, in which “life . . . is a wake” (55.05-06), recalling the death-rebirth symbolism of the song “Finnegan's Wake.” In another section in which he is identified with the phoenix HCE appears as the alchemist Paracelsus . . . The first riddle of I.6 also identifies Finn MacCool/HCE with the phoenix (128.35, 136.35)” -Barbara DiBernard, Alchemy and Finnegans Wake, pp. 43
Thoughts on the Star Factory
@rjt1978 I had a look at the sections from The Star Factory that had been covered over in the pictures posted by Ana.
Pages 40-41 are contained in the chapter about Milltown cemetry. Interestingly Milltown is so-named because of a series of mills that used to exist along the course of the river Farset. The section that is not in black describes a contemporary view of the same area, so there may be some significance in this contrast between a historical versus a contemporary image of the same area. Perhaps something to do with learning from the past in order to inform the present.
This idea of learning from the past in order to inform the present comes out again in pages 58 and 59. This is a subsection called 'Backward recollection' in the chapter called 'The Titanic'. It describes how a crew member on-board a ship (called the Titanian) recognised a number of similarities/co-incidences (notwithstanding the name of the vessel) between his current situation and that of the Titanic on the night it sunk. In recognising this he successfully prevented his ship from suffering the same fate as the Titanic as it too was about to strike an iceberg!
Are we and Ana supposed to learn something from Belfast's history in order to prevent something from happening to her?
Page 70 is rather telling. The blackened sections say “the tiny ancillary moments of your life assume an almost legendary status' followed by 'as in my father's story, which follows:' This made me wonder if this is all something to do with Ana's father and his suicide? Are we to prevent Ana from suffering the same fate as her father…she says herself in her most recent blog “I don’t want to end up like my father; that he was truly alone, in the end, and that he was so sad, having destroyed the things he loved.”
Ana has already lost someone she loves (David) seemingly because of a preoccupation with her father's suicide. Interestingly, in Greek mythology, the seven sisters of the Pleiades all committed suicide as a result of their father Atlas' fate or the loss of their siblings…this after being pursued by Orion of course (see the above OPIHN discussion).
Pages 90 and 91 contain places which we have already seen are significant including Castle Place, the Linenhall library and the Palm house in Botanic gardens. The first section on page 90 describes yet another photograph of the high street/castle place area looking east. Earlier in the Star Factory, Carson describes another photograph of this area from 1952 in which he recognises one of the figures as his own father! Is Ana to do the same thing, somehow recognise the allusion to her own father in the evidence we have been provided?
The final theme that I can see in these sections is that of time and clocks. The photograph containing Carson's father had a clock showing the time five past twelve, the bottom section of page 90 and the top of 91 describe an image of Great Victoria Street station with a clock showing the time fourteen minutes past eleven, and the final section on 91 describes a scene in the Linenhall library with a clock on the wall, although the time can bot be cleary seen.
Not entirely sure what the significance of this is, but clocks and time certainly seem to be recurring themes.
Meri Cain
a mysterious person, on her way to belfast, possibly an actor in the waterclock play..
Meri's sisters are (known to us)
- Ty, who apparently died when meri was young..
- Maia, her oldest sister..
Meri was asked to come to belfast by her oldest sister to celebrate Ty's anniversary Meri is not thrilled about this…
Apparently Meri was killed in an accident when she was young.. Who oh who is the Meri Cain from the Blog and the Facbook page???
The 'key' obtained from No Alibis
This is the text from the 'key' obtained from the No Alibis bookshop.
For some reason Ana posted the image back to front on her blog, was this deliberate?
The first section says: “observation of the avian paths afforded them no insight, for their futures would be altered by the very fact of entering the Factory”
Its from page 62 of the Star Factory.
The second section is from page 63…“They called this the Zone. The Zone was not the Factory though it was of the Factory and bore its aura. It was an interactive blueprint; not virtual, but narrative reality. It was called the Zone in order to distinguish it from all other enclaves into which the previous city had been long divided; these were proper nouns with lineages of real names and topography behind them”
Anyone know what this Zone is that Ciaran Carson is referring to?
Ana's Father
@Draghkar Since this thing more and more points to Ana's dad, this section is there to write down all we know about him. Try to get some chronology in it, to make reading easier..
- Ana's Dad is Dutch and comes from a town called Hoorn. This is in the province of Noord Holland, about 40-60 km north of Amsterdam
- Married Helen in one point in time
- When Ana was 5 or 6 years old
- Dad introduced ana to the stars, especially the pleiades
- He was obsessed with ancient Talmudic scripture, historically, and the Pleiades has some significance there.
- He became obsessed with the number 7, and with maps
- Moved to Belfast in the spring of 94
- Was passioned about his work - a scientist at Queens university Belfast
- worked late nights - often
- Wasn't getting along with colleagues
- Didnt tell Helen and Ana much about his work, was too consumed with it to talk about it
- Was researching the disappearance of the modiolus in strangford Lough
- This was caused by an invasive species )Asterias Rubens
- Solution would be introducing luidia Ciliaris - it would predate Asteris Rubens and not harm the environment
- Research was not well received by the colleagues
- was suggested to divert from it
- Was too stuborn to listen even though he understood
- Found out that he had stumbled into the funding terratory of a woman with a lot of influence (WHO???)
- He was in competition with her for a large research grant, designated for research on invasive species on Northern Ireland
- The woman bribed his 2 research assistants (DO WE KNOW WHO THESE ARE??) making them tell he faked his research results
- Started drinking
- Lost his job in February - the grant went to the female researcher
- He became a drunk
- Ana and Helen move away??
- Ana received a pendant from her dad (Pics on her blog)
- Pendant contains a note saying luidia ciliaris
- Dad told her to always keep it nearby, that it was good luck
- Met a writer in the pub (WHO)
- this writer is a drinker, but lot less than him
- Ana's dad spoke in long length about Ana and Helen
- Told him that Ana is a scientist, studying the starfish he showed her
- Told him that Ana wrote fantastical stories
- The writer is interested in Ana's stories (could this writer be shaun Traynor or [[Ciaran Carson])
- Ana's Dad bring him a story Ana wrote when they all lived in Belfast
- The writer has a characteristic stutter
- The writer smokes cigarettes
- Quotes “Veritas” to Anas dad (clue??)
- Realises he is not that good of a father, because he ignores Ana's letters
- Feels his heart is empty and finished
- He was admitted to the royal victoria to be diagnosed. According to the letter, he was seeing and hearing things. He calls this his illness..
- Exclaims Ana is part of a puzzle
The Token
The kidnapping of Ana
Ok so as a 'reward' for my video summary I (@rjt1978) got to meet Ana tonight in a bar in Belfast.
She was very pleasant…and even offered to buy me a drink (very kind). We chatted a bit about the mystery and how there are still many unanswered questions. She spoke of how weird it was to find out about her grandfather and his communications with Ciaran Carson's father. She said she didn't think that specific location in Belfast were necessarily important as there have already been so many…so I don't think there are 7 specific locations like I/we thought. She also suggested that Ciaran Carson must have something to do with [in]visible belfast
She spoke about the item that we obtained from the Crescent Arts centre and how the names and descriptions in it represent the characters in the Water Clock play. She also pointed out that the middle page…the third star/sister Celeano as missing!
She told me that she had made an agreemen with [in]visible belfast that if she could ask for volunteers to make videos in order to gain more help in solving the mystery then she would do something for them…I don't think she ever told me what she was to do for them in return.
Ana did tell me that she knew more about all of this than we did…and that if she was to tell me what she knew, there would be consequences.
It was about then that some bloke came in and said to Ana 'You need to come with me.' Ok…neither of us put up much of a fight…Ana got up and was led out of the bar by this guy and into a green Skoda car and subsequently driven off.
Confusing…stunning…
Ana left a number of things behind. Her copy of the token from the Crescent Arts centre which she has made a number of notes on…the programme from the Water Clock play (nothing added to it), the Belfast book festival programme (not altered in any way as far as I can tell)…and an envelope from invisible Belfast (see the photos)…this seems the contain the missing middle page from the item obtained for the Crescent arts centre. This middle page has a description of the third star/sister Celeano.
This is Ana's copy of the booklet we traded the token for…
Here's the envelope she left (it had already been opened)…
And this is what was in it…
Map inside the document
This map formed the inside cover of the document we traded for at the Crescent Arts centre.
The co-oridnates take you to the junction between Bedford Street, Dublin Road and Ormeau Avenue. Not sure the significance of this but it would be roughly on the line between the City Hall and the Crescent arts centre on this plotting from a few weeks ago…
Certainly if you walk from City Hall to the Crescent arts centre you would naturally walk via this co-ordinate.
Not sure the locations themselves are that significant other than the fact that we have plotted a constellation of stars over the map of Belfast. Seems to fit nicely with the name of Sundays event…“Constellation of Belfast”.
Finale Event
At the Finale Event the conspirators who could attend in person took part in a story-writing event. Below is a transcript of the Story we wrote and the .pdfs of the original:
Grappa & Ether
One Morning I woke up in Smithfield Market. My Head was Foggy with pain. I was on my own, shoeless and sockless. The name ana was written on the sole of my foot.
I tried to rub it off. However, it seemed to be permanently imprinted on my skin. A-N-A … who was this Ana? For that matter, who was I?
I began to search through my pockets. Something pricked my finger . I lifted the finger to my lips and saw green blood. It Tasted of Grappa, and I remembered…
There was a green eye, but not the human kind. Its stare was boring into me like a dentists drill. But what was a dentist's drill? I no longer knew. Had I ever? My Tongue found the empty place where my wisdom tooth used to be. I remembered the dentist saying, “there will be a wee twist”. This was followed by a crack and a crunch. Then Nothing until Smithfield Market. Had the Dentist stolen my wisdom? What is wisdom? No, That's too philosophical for a head that feels like this, Thick and heavy. I slowly rose from the cold ground. It felt oddly smooth and sterile against my feet. As I arose, I realised I wasn't stopping. I kept rising until I banged my head on the roof.
The lights went out again.
I woke up in a room with a broken torch and strange markings on the floor. The foot that had Ana tattooed on it, now had seven toes, but her name was gone. My extra toes looked a little like pre-molars. I fainted from the shock and woke up with a blinding light in my face. I was leaning back in an uncomfortable chair. A voice was saying: “Ana, Ana, are you ok?
It was Dr. Hook, my childhood dentist, who had died while having his gangrenous toes removed due to diabetic complications. Hi eyes were the alien eyes I'd remembered before. Were these the eyes of a decaying corpse?
I passed out yet again and woke up in my own bed with my wife Ana beside me. I turned to her and said, “I love you”. She opened her green eyes, stroked our Maine Coon cat and said,”And…?”
skmbt_c25011062109020.pdf skmbt_c25011062109030.pdf skmbt_c25011062109040.pdf
